


Like Stardust On Fairy Wings.

by Michaelssw0rd, Michaelssw0rd-art (Michaelssw0rd)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fluff and Angst, Frostiron Secret Santa, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Romance, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Wooing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-02-24 14:32:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13215780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michaelssw0rd/pseuds/Michaelssw0rd, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michaelssw0rd/pseuds/Michaelssw0rd-art
Summary: High in the stratosphere lives a race of air spirits, safe from the reach of mortals. Tony, while trying to solve the icing problem of his Mark-II, unexpectedly comes across one of them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Strifemaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strifemaster/gifts).



> Hi. *waves*  
> I am your secret santa for the [ Frostiron Gift Exchange](https://frostirongiftexchange.tumblr.com), and I had a LOT of fun writing this! I spent a while trying to decide which mythical creature suited Loki best, and I hope you like Sylph!Loki as much as I did!  
> (also I am sorry this is so late, but if I ever end up writing something before the last moment of deadline, it wouldn't be me)  
> Anyway! I hope you had wonderful holidays, and wish you a very happy new year!
> 
> Also... this is a special shout-out to [MnemonicMadness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MnemonicMadness/pseuds/MnemonicMadness) for all the hand holding and encouragement. I am so very grateful for your support. Thank you!

~~PROLOGUE~~

Loki kept his head down and made for the door, letting the air currents carry him smoothly and quietly, not sure where he wanted to be, just anywhere but _here_. The guards bowed their heads as he passed them by, and Loki hovered in the air for a while to watch the castle gates close, a sigh of relief forming in his chest.

“Brother!”

Loki groaned. Not this again. He turned back around and willed his wings to beat faster, not wanting Thor to catch him.

“Brother, wait!”

Loki had no intention of doing any such thing. But he had never been able to defeat Thor in flight race, not even two centuries ago when Thor’s secondary wing had been injured and the healers had forbidden him from flying. Soon despite Loki’s best efforts, Thor overtook him, turning around and hovering with his arms crossed over his chest- a picture of disapproval.

“What?” Loki snarled, stepping down onto the flimsy clouds that were always floating around the castle. Thor did the same.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Thor’s brow frowned. “It’s Fandral’s coming of age feast today.”

Loki remembered that all too well. That was precisely the reason he had been trying to escape! But he couldn’t tell Thor that. He morphed his expressions into one of surprise, and remorse.

“Oh. I didn’t realize it was today.”

“It matters not, Brother. Come, let us join the preparations.”

Loki’s shoulders sagged. “Must we? I grow weary of all the celebrations.”

“It is a big day for Fandral. He has waited five hundred years for it to arrive. As the Prince of the realm, you should be there.”

“Oh don’t fool yourself. Fandral doesn’t care for my presence.”

He looked at Thor sharply, daring him to disagree. Thor, to his credit, didn’t try that. “Father would be most disappointed in you.”

Loki laughed, and hated how bitter it sounded. “When is he not?”

Thor looked at him thoughtfully for a second, before nodding. “Okay. If that is your wish. I will tell All-Father I sent you on an important errand.”

Loki smiled. As much as Thor pretended to be tough and mighty, he could never hide his soft spot for his little brother. Loki would feel bad about taking advantage of that, if he wasn’t aware Thor enjoyed indulging him. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Thor clapped on his shoulder hard, making the cloud under Loki’s feet to crumble, unbalancing Loki and causing him flap his wings in panic. He glared at Thor, who was laughing heartily, before gesturing with his hands and materializing another _firmer_ cloud to stand on. “Where will you go?” Thor asked, sobering up.

“Nowhere in particular.”

“Ah, I see.” Loki’s cheeks warmed up at Thor’s knowing tone. “Going to watch your favorite mortals again?”

“They aren’t my favorite.” Loki protested, but faltered under Thor’s amused gaze. “They are just… intriguing. They change so fast, which is fascinating to observe, and very admirable, especially when contrasted with us, who haven’t evolved in many millennia.” _They aren’t boring_ , is what he wanted to say, but Thor understood it anyway.

Loki knew his tone was getting passionate and he held his tongue, as Thor chuckled. “You forget one thing Loki.” Loki looked up at him questioningly. “Perfection doesn’t need to evolve.”

Loki huffed out a laugh, watching Thor rise up in flight again. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“See you later, Brother.” Thor flew past him, back towards the castle doors, and Loki stared at him for a while, before taking flight himself. He floated around aimlessly for a while, not settling down. It was still bright enough to make him vary of venturing down; the mortals had invented contraptions that could fly in the last century, and he wasn’t interested in being rammed by one. The sun was warm on his skin as he settled down on his favorite spot, a collection of clouds over an area where the sea met the land, and if he focused he could hear both the call of mermaids, and the bustle of humans below him.

He closed his eyes, and tried to find his focus, becoming one with the wind and hearing it’s every rise and fall, feel every quiver it brought back from down below, and let himself be float freely. He had barely synced his breath with the flow of air when he felt the disturbance in the air, something flying up towards him, and fast.

It wasn’t possible. Nothing- living or made my mortals-ever flew this far up. Nothing could; the atmospheric conditions wouldn’t allow it. Before he could take his bearing and put a glamour on himself, to vanish away from any mortal’s eyes, the thing was already there: a ball of fire hanging in the middle of sky, shaped distinctly like a man.

Loki opened his mouth, to speak or to scream he had no idea, but the creature beat him to it.

“… the fuck?”

And then it fell down again, as quickly as it had climbed up, with a loud yell.

Tony didn’t like to admit it, but the icing problem was driving me nuts.

“Let’s try going higher this time.” Tony diverted more power towards his thrusters, shooting up from his balcony. “What do you say? A 100,000 feet should do the job.”

“Any higher, Sir, and we might as well try to achieve orbit.”

“Focus, Jarvis. We have a problem to solve.” Tony let out an exhilarated laugh as he defied gravity and soared through the air. The novelty of being able to do that wasn’t going to get old any time soon.

“I believe I have a suggestion that would be both cost and time effective,” Jarvis said, and it was unfair that an AI could sound so smug.

“Uh-huh. What is it?”

“Don’t fly above the suitable range, and the problem won’t exist.”

Tony laughed. “Thanks. But no thanks.” Technically, he didn’t need to fly so close to the mesosphere, but he wouldn’t be able to rest until he knew he _could_.

Jarvis stayed quiet as Tony flew over the ocean and in weaved in between the buildings, warming up and getting used to the flight control before aiming straight towards the sky.

“How’s the power holding?”

“At 98%.”

“And the icing?”

“I believe we are doing better than the last time. There’s some accumulation of the frost, but the gold titanium alloy is holding quite adequately. I estimate there wouldn’t be any problem unless you really try and leave the stratosphere.”

“Maybe later.” Tony beamed at the success, finally ready to call his Mark 2 operational and deciding it was time to head back down. He was slowing down his ascent when he saw something that made him freeze in midair.

“What the hell?”

There was a man there, sitting cross-legged on a piece of floating cloud, as if it was a completely normal thing to do. Well, if he could even call that creature a man… It had _wings._

Tony stared, and noticed the creature stared back as well, its eyes wide open in shock, as if _Tony_ was the strange and unexpected thing here.

“Sir, your suit…” Jarvis spoke, but Tony didn’t need him to finish. He had shut off power to the thrusters to stop and gape. Gravity didn’t really care for the fact that he was surprised.

He let out an involuntary scream as he succumbed to gravity and fell. He tried to light up his thrusters and flight stabilizers, but they just flickered and turned off.

“Thrusters, Jarvis.”

“The atmospheric temperatures are making it difficult to…”

“Divert more power to them!”

Tony felt a surge of relief as the thrusters re-engaged, making him veer off on a tangent before he could use the stabilizers to maneuver back to the position he was in and head up again, towards the unbelievable sight he had seen.

Only… there was nothing there.

“Did you see what I saw?” Tony asked just in case.

“I am exactly sure what I saw, Sir.”

Well, that answered his question. Tony wasn’t sure what he saw either.

“Are we in the same place as before?”

“The co-ordinates and the height is indeed the same.”

Huh. Did he just imagine it? It wouldn’t be the first time. Sleep had not been a priority for him recently after all. But no… it was too weird a sight for even Tony’s sleep deprived brain to hallucinate.

“Let’s take a look around!” he decided.

He spent another ten minutes flying around at that height… scanning the area with all the sensors his suit had, and coming up empty. When Jarvis warned of systems starting to malfunction due to the atmospheric conditions, he gave up the search reluctantly, and went back home.

It would be a wise thing to let it go as a hallucination, but somehow Tony wasn’t convinced.

A day later, Tony was still thinking about the strange man in the clouds.

“Jarvis, you there?” He had an idea and strode back into his workshop in the middle of the night.

“For you Sir, Always.”

“The suit’s view screen processes the images through our main server, right?” Tony settled down in his seat and booted up his computer.

“While that is correct, it’s not programmed to store those images. The amount of space that would require would be quite inefficient.”

“I know that. But if the images passed through the server, it should be possible to trace them.”

“Sir, what you- what _we_ saw- is not…”

“It was real. I know it.” He set his jaw in determination.

“In that case, I believe what you’re suggesting may be possible.”

Tony grinned. “It can’t hurt to try.”

Two hours later, Tony hooted in triumph as the picture started loading. “Gotcha!”

He leaned back in the chair and rubbed his tired eyes, watching the image clear on the screen.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” He bent forward, staring.

There it was, exactly what he had seen. A man, seemingly in his late-twenties, pale with dark hair and clad in green and black. It would’ve been an attractive- albeit quite normal- sight, if not for the two pairs of slender almost translucent wings at his back, and the fact that he was sitting casually on a bloody _cloud._

“Now… just who exactly are you?”

He had researched. Went through all the databases he and Jarvis could access- which was everything- and was no closer to knowing the answer than he had been two days ago. The best theory he could come up with was that it was an Elemental, an air spirit. They had been known by many names in different cultures: the Aurai, the Venti, or more commonly… the Sylph. But it was the stuff of mythology, romanticized by the literature and theatre. If he was to believe in the Sylphs, then he might as well start believing in mermaids and fairies as well.

And yet, there was no other explanation for what he had seen.

He had flown around the skies of Malibu every day since the incident, hoping to catch a glimpse of the person again, but either it wasn’t there, or it hid himself well. He probably didn’t want to be found, and Tony had obviously caught him unaware the first time. It was too optimistic to hope for a repeat incident.

And yet, Tony had never encountered a mystery that he didn’t want to solve.

So it was almost a relief when Christine told him about what was happening in Gulmira. He remembered Yinsin, his intelligence and bravery, and the kindness he had shown him, and realized there was a debt to be repaid. Revenge on the ten rings, and destroying his weapons was just a bonus.

The strange man in the clouds was the last thing on his mind on the way back, when he was intercepted by two F-22 planes. In retrospect, he should’ve expected that when he violated the no-fly zone, or at least should’ve let Rhodes know in advance. But in his defense, he wasn’t exactly thinking straight when he made for Gulmira, and the way Rhodey had refused to be a part of his new project still stung.

He evaded the planes as best as he could, using flares to avoid being hit by a missile, dodging the bullets, but he was just one man in a suit- even if a top notch one- and those were two fighter jets with a lot of firepower and a target system that he himself had designed. Jarvis informed him that he was target locked by both the planes, and he shouted at Rhodey telling him that was him, but knew it was too late. The missiles were already deployed.

He veered upwards, hoping he would be able to outrun them, but he had pushed the suit to its limit, flying for hours and using the power to fight the ten rings. There was a certain irony to it all, almost being killed by his own weapons, surviving that, and being killed by another type of them eventually.

“Ten seconds to impact, Sir.”

Jarvis sounded almost panicked, and Tony felt an irrational need to comfort his AI. “Jarvis, it has been fun.”

“It has been my utmost pleasure to serve beside you, Sir. Five seconds, four…”

“So that’s it.”

He closed his eyes, waiting to be blown apart, but the impact never came. “What?” he asked, confused.

“I believe you should see it with your own eyes.”

Tentatively, Tony opened one eye first, squinting ahead. The shock made him open both of his eyes, barely making out the missiles, hanging around in the air, his eyes trained on the person in front of him.

There he was, the mystery he had been trying to solve for days now. He looked exactly like Tony remembered, except this time he wasn’t sitting, but floating in the air, his wings fluttering at his back and his hand outstretched. The wind was whipping his hair, and Tony realized that was what had diverted the missiles. The creature had literally blown the target locked missiles away, only to get them hang around in the air in surreal suspended animation at his sides, completely harmless. Then he made some complicated hand gestures, and the explosives that were about to kill him simply vanished out of existence.

“What?”

Tony knew staring was rude, but he decided he could be excused this one time.

“Shit” The strange flying man cursed, his eyes widening in alarm and Tony knew instinctively that he was going to vanish in a moment.

“No, wait!” Tony called out before he could do that.

The man seemed to hesitate, his eyes shifting over Tony’s suit, and Tony made sure that his thrusters were engaged, and his eyes trained on the subject. “You saved my life.”

“A foolish mistake on my part.” There was a wry grin on his face, and his wings beating restlessly.

“Why do you say that?”

“I am not allowed to interfere in the business of mortals. All-Father will be very displeased.” Mortals. So the creature wasn’t human. Tony still couldn’t quite wrap his head around it, even though he had been expecting as much.

“Still, thank you. I was stupid, and it would’ve been the most unglamorous way to die, so I am grateful that--Wait a minute… you speak English?”

This time the man chuckled, before making a gesture with his hand. Instantly a cloud materialized under his feet, and he stepped on it, like one would stand on solid ground. Tony tried not to feel jealous. “Mortals are unbelievably loud,” he said, as if that explained things. Tony supposed that it did.

“You keep saying mortals, so what are you?” There it was again… the look that told Tony that the man was about to flee. “I did my research, so let me guess… A sylph?”

The man looked shocked. “I didn’t know mortals had any knowledge about us. Can it be that I was mistaken? What are you? A phoenix? We haven’t sighted one in centuries.”

Tony laughed, trying not to linger over the knowledge that apparently _phoenixes were real too_. “I wish. No, plain old mortal here.”

“Fascinating.” The sylph opened his mouth to say something else, but then seemed to look distracted, listening to something Tony couldn’t hear. “I must go.”

“No wait!” Tony called out again, and the man looked irritated this time, pausing with hands raised in midair.

“What?”

“Uhhh…” Tony blinked, unsure what to say, only that he didn’t want to let the sylph go just yet. “At least tell me your name.”

“And why will I do that?” There was a sneer on his face, as if Tony had said something outrageous.

“Because it’s only polite. And you just saved me from being blown apart, so I am thinking we should definitely be on first name terms. Here, I will go first. I am Tony.”

“Tony.” The man repeated the name, weighing it on his tongue.

“Well, actually my name is Anthony Edward Stark. But nobody calls me that. Not even the press. So yeah… Just Tony is fine.”

“Interesting. The exchange sounds fair. Anthony, I am Loki.”

“Just Loki?”

Loki smiled, and this time Tony could tell it was full of mischief. “Yes. Just Loki.”

He made a move to go again, and Tony flew towards him hurriedly. “When can I see you again?”

“You won’t.” Loki said, and before Tony could say anything in argument, he made a gesture with his hands and disappeared.

“Sir, I did not want to interrupt, but the suit is almost out of power.” Jarvis said, when Tony had stopped gawping. The next second, he was falling, losing altitude fast.

“Shit. Shift to emergency power.” Tony flailed, trying to slow down the descent.

“Shifting to emergency power.”

The flight back was slower this time. Tony tried to stay clear of being sighted, and made his way towards his mansion. “Jarvis, store all the video footage from today’s encounter with Loki to my private server.”

“Already done, Sir.”

Tony couldn’t wait to analyze it and take it apart. One thing he knew for sure: no way this was the last time he saw Loki. Not if he had anything to say about it.

Tony was nothing if not persistent.

He did repairs on his suit, which had sustained quite a lot of damage because of his altercations in Gulmira and afterwards fighting the F-22, then he changed his reactor’s palladium core, and was in the air again less than 24 hours after his meeting with Loki.

Predictably, Loki wasn’t there. But that did not deter him in the slightest. He flew around at the altitude he had met Loki the first time, calling out his name periodically.

“Sir, the weather conditions are getting worse, and the wind has picked up speed.” Jarvis told him half an hour into his loud serenades. Tony couldn’t subdue his grin at that.

“I know you’re there, Loki. Come on.” He flew through the openly hostile wind now, pushing him down, convince that Loki was around and watching. He had always been told he had a unique ability to irritate people. He was counting on that.

He continued doing that until Jarvis warned him of low power, and then proceeded to be back there twelve hours later with a new core.

He was getting on Loki’s nerves. He could tell that by the way the winds had become harsher as if with the single focus of bringing Tony down. It just made him shout Loki’s name louder.

He would be more ashamed of his antics, but he was locked out of his own company, his uncle was double dealing under the table, and he felt like he had the weight of the world and all the deaths on his shoulders. This was a good distraction.

On third day, he had just begun his usual spiel, when a strong air current unbalanced him, tipping him backwards. When he compensated for the resistance and straightened back, he had to whoop in delight.

Loki stood on a cloud, arms folded across his chest, and his expressions sour.

“I ask that you desist in this fruitless endeavor immediately.” Oh, he sounded pissed. Tony felt bad at relishing that.

“Not so fruitless actually. You’re here, aren’t you?”

“Only cause if I heard Thor tease me about this one more time… I would probably have to murder him. He thinks it’s adorable that a mortal has developed an infatuation.”

“Well, whoever Thor is, he isn’t exactly wrong.” Tony wasn’t bashful. He could admit that it was more than just curiosity fuelling his search.

He stared incredulously at the twin spots of color on Loki’s otherwise clear skin, but before he could analyze it, Loki spoke again. “Thor is my idiot brother, not that it matters. Why are you here?”

“To talk to you, of course.”

“Well, we are talking. What do you want?” Loki didn’t look even slightly amused.

“Must you be so cold?” Tony lifted one hand and placed it against his breastplate, pretending to be hurt. “We were brought together by fate and should get to know each other.”

“No,” Loki enunciated clearly. “You are an annoying bug that I should swap out of the sky.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

Loki looked conflicted, his gaze shifting away. “I don’t know.”

“Tell you what, if you indulge me, I promise I would stop wandering around shouting your name to all heavens and embarrassing you in front of your family.”

“That’s blackmail.” Loki glared.

Tony shrugged in response. “I prefer to think of it as a bargain.”

The wind had let up now, and Tony adjusted his flight accordingly. Jarvis was quiet, but his view-screen told him that he had another hour of power left if he used it at this rate.

“Oh for Norn’s sake. Quit your hovering.” Loki made a sweeping gesture with his hands, and Tony watched in awe as a cloud materialized under his feet. “You can stand on it.”

“Uhhh…” Tony remembered falling through three layers of concrete last time he underestimated the weight of the suit, and he didn’t want to repeat that incident. “I think I am fine like this.”

Loki didn’t answer, instead kept glaring at him, glancing once at the cloud. Tentatively, Tony cut the power of the suit, letting it lower him on the cloud.

Huh.

It was remarkably sturdy. Magic, it figured.

“Alright. What do you want to know?” Loki sat down, much like the way Tony had first found him more than a week ago. Tony followed suit, the metal creaking awkwardly as he folded his knees.

Tony rubbed his gauntlets together in excitement. “Where do I even start…”

Over the next couple of weeks, Tony discovered a couple of things.

He found out that Loki was delectably snarky, and could easily keep up with Tony’s antics. He gave as good as he got, matching him in wit and humor, their banter becoming easy as breathing. Tony had rarely- if ever- met anyone who could do that, and he had no idea how much _fun_ it could be.

He also discovered that Loki was wickedly, terrifyingly, intelligent. One day, he had taken a look at Tony’s repulsor’s energy and commented that it didn’t feel like fire, and when Tony had started explaining how it was powered through the arc reactor… he _got it!_ Tony could discuss upgrades in the armor with Loki, and after just a little bit of background information, Loki was actively contributing to discussions and giving suggestions. Hell, even Jarvis seemed impressed.

And there were many other little things as well. Like the way Loki fiddled with his hair sometimes, or the way his wings would flutter restlessly when he got excited, or the way his eyes always glinted with barely contained mischief that just made Tony want to offer him the world and watch him play with it. Tony loved the way the sylph talked about humanity, brimming with curiosity and trying to hide it behind a fake mask of superiority and failing spectacularly at it. He also learned about Loki’s family- not so much because Loki told him, but by the way he sometimes talked about them. Tony had to smile at the way he mentioned his brother- full of affection and disdain- and had to control his rage at the way he spoke of his father, the emotion feeling too much like his situation with Obie at the moment.

But most importantly, he discovered he was, in fact, completely screwed.

The realization came because Loki was also curious like a freaking cat, and had one day casually strolled towards Tony, standing closer than he ever had. Tony’s heart was hammering in his chest as Loki tilted his head to a side, staring at the reactor in his chest, and he felt like it would simply stop when Loki raised his hands and ran his index finger around the circumference of it.

“This is your heart?”

His _heart_ did a flip in response in a way that made Tony feel slightly nauseous. “Sort of. It’s what keeps me alive, so I guess you can call it that.”

Loki looked up at him, his eyes reflecting the blue glow of the reactor, warm and enchanted. “It’s beautiful.”

Well… _Fuck._

Tony Stark _would_ fall for an immortal being. It was bloody typical.

“Rhodey, remember the incident with the alcohol, three ladies, and a giant kite, back in 1991?” Tony started, apropos of nothing, chuckling when he heard his best friend sputter.

“Why must you remind me of something like that at six in the morning? Why are you up at this hour anyway?”

“Oh, is it six already? I hadn’t noticed. Anyway… I am saying that to remind you that you owe me a favor.”

Rhodey groaned. “Seriously?”

“Yeah! So, for the dubious honor of saving you from humiliation two decades ago, I want you to clear the skies for the next hour.”

“What? No, no, no. You can’t ask me of that. Not after that stunt you pulled with the F-22’s.” It sounded like Rhodey was sitting up in bed at the other end.

“Please.” Tony took out the big guns, knowing his friend had a soft spot for him. “This is important to me.”

Rhodey sighed, and Tony barely his victory hoot. “Alright. But just this once!”

“You’re the best!”

“Will you at least tell me—”

Tony cut the call before he could finish, looking ahead at Loki’s questioning face. “It’s done. The skies are clear.”

“Anthony, I really don’t think…”

“Oh come on. It will be fun!” Tony stood up, walking towards Loki who was standing up as well. The little magical cloud under him moved with him, and by now Tony had stopped gaping at that.

“Odin would not be pleased.”

“Fuck Odin!” Tony said instinctively, and then covered his faceplate’s mouth hastily. “Oops.”

Loki looked at him in alarm, and then a smile started appearing on his lips, full of promises. “I do believe there is weight in your suggestion.”

“So… what do you say?”

Loki mused, as if considering, and then before Tony could make sense of it, he simply jumped and dived downwards, into the cover of clouds.

“Son of a bitch!” Tony exclaimed, before righting himself and jumped down as well. “Jarvis, let’s show this fairy what we’ve got.”

“With pleasure, Sir.”

It took him a few minutes to catch up with Loki, and he turned his face to the side to see the wide grin on Loki’s face, his own lips mirroring the expression even though Loki couldn’t see it. “Ready to be beaten at your own turf, Sylph.”

“You wish, Human.”

A current of air formed around Loki, circling him, and then propelled him forward, shooting through the sky. Tony laughed in delight, chasing the movement, watching how Loki barely had to move his wings, the winds doing his job for him.

They dived and floated through the skies around the Malibu, going up until Jarvis warned him about the suit’s systems malfunctioning, and then down until they were weaving through the buildings, almost skimming the water. Tony didn’t know how long they flew around, but he followed Loki when he slowed down eventually.

“That was…” Loki started.

“Awesome!” Tony finished.

“Unwise.”

He pouted at the correction. “Come on. It was fantastic. You can’t deny that.”

Loki smiled at that. “I can’t. Nevertheless, that was dangerous.”

It was, but that was part of the fun. He didn’t tell Loki that, but he was sure Loki knew it, and agreed. “You know what I want right now? Coffee. Have you ever had coffee?”

Tony didn’t notice the look of alarm on Loki’s face, just saw him shake his head. “Well you’ve been missing out! It’s humanity’s best invention in my opinion. I know of a wonderful place. We should—“

“Anthony. I can’t…”

The tremble in Loki’s voice stopped Tony short.

“You can’t?”

“It’s… not allowed. Not safe.”

“You mean you can’t drink human beverages?”

Loki laughed a bitter laugh. “No. I can eat or drink anything. That is not the issue.”

“If you’re worried about the wings… you can just throw a big sweatshirt over your clothes and no one would notice. Hell, weirder stuff happens in the streets of LA on daily basis. Trust me, no one would give you a second look- well, not cause of your wings anyway, your face I can’t give any guarantee about. And can’t you like, put a glamour on…”

“Anthony.” Loki placed a hand on his shoulder to quiet him, and Tony spared a split second to mourn not being able to feel that. That was the other reason he really wanted Loki to go to the surface: so he could take this damn suit off without freezing to death. “I can’t ever step on earth.”

That jerked Tony out of his musings. “Come again?”

“I am an air spirit, an elemental being. All the elements have them: the gnomes, the phoenixes and the mermaids. And we belong in our element. If I ever try to encroach on another’s territory, I can get trapped by the earth, or drowned by the water, or burnt by the fire. So you have to understand when I say what we did today was… extremely reckless.”

Tony considered that for a moment. “Well… Shit.”                                                                      

“Indeed.”

Tony didn’t invite Loki down again, although he wondered if concrete and metal counted as _earth._ He tried not to think about his reasoning when he ordered to have the whole of the upper floor of his mansion refurbished with a layer of vacuum between the concrete and artificially made marble tiles. They kept meeting every day, and Tony realized he was in over his head when the life on ground started feeling less real than the time Tony spent in his suit, and in Loki’s company.

Desperately, in a way he hadn’t felt in years, if ever, he hoped that Loki felt the same way.

And then, about a month since his first flight and his first encounter with Loki, real life came to bite him in the ass.

Obadiah tried to kill him.

He pulled the heart that Loki had admired so worshipfully from Tony’s chest, leaving him paralyzed, and went to claim everything that was left of Tony’s as his own too. It was only because of Pepper’s sentimentality that he survived, pushing himself through the pain and nausea and the heart wrenching burn betrayal to reach for the device that saved him once in an Afghan cave, and hoping it could save him once more.

But it didn’t end there.

And faced with Obadiah’s bastardized monster of a suit, he realized very quickly that whatever he could do at the moment wasn’t going to be enough. So he shot for the sky.

Predictably, Obie followed.

“Loki!” He called out the moment he reached the clouds. “Loki! Help.”

“Sir, the odds of you finding Loki before your power runs out are…”

“Shut up, Jarvis. Loki!” He looked around, his scanners encountering only empty space.

Jarvis counted down his suit’s power, reporting it at seven percent when he felt something grab his leg, and pull him down.

“You had a great idea Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way,” Obie gloated, and something in Tony’s chest, behind his arc reactor, constricted in both fear and misery. He looked away, not wanting the sight of the most profound betrayal he had ever felt in his life be the last thing he ever saw.

That’s when he watched Loki materialize beside him. Reluctantly, hope curled in his aching heart, and he smiled.

“Oh yeah, how did you solve the icing problem?”

Loki nodded, understanding what Tony was asking for, and a strong gust of wind surrounded them, and pushed them away from each other. Tony watched in awe, as Obadiah’s giant suit frosted over; stared as strong rotating winds circled him, creating a tornado and leaving him thrashing in its mercy.

“You okay?” Loki asked, concerned.

Tony watched Obie fall, helpless against the forces of nature, against the power of elements he had thought he had mastered.

“Yeah. I am fine.” He turned around to smile at Loki, and to thank him for saving his life once again.

“Two percent.” Jarvis spoke, and that’s when Tony’s suit gave up, propelling him down the path Obie had taken. “Running on emergency back-up power now.”

When he landed on the roof of his R & D department, out of power, exhausted, but not too worse for wear, he had hoped it was the end. But Obie’s scientists had made the suit a little too sturdy, and Tony had done his job with the arc reactor a little too well. It resulted in Tony being forced to fight an insane, power hungry monster with nothing but an out-of-power suit and the creativity of his mind.

So of course he ended up hanging onto his own roof and asking Pepper to press the button that would signal his own death. He had created the monster that was Obadiah right now, and it was only fair that he ended it, no matter what the cost.

“Time to hit the button,” he called out, hoping Pepper wouldn’t argue.

“You plan to sacrifice yourself?” An awfully familiar voice said, and Tony’s gaze whipped towards it in disbelief.

“Loki! What are you doing here? Get out! Now. This whole place is going to blow up any second.” He shooed frantically, as Obadiah fired yet another missile towards him, barely missing him this time.

“And you’re going to blow yourself up with it.” Loki sounded strangely angry, but Tony didn’t have any time to try and decipher its meaning.

“It’s the only way. Get out of here! Fire can burn you, remember?”

He watched in morbid fascination as Loki fluttered his wings, and folded his arms across his chest, his jaw set in determination. “No.”

“Pepper! Just do it.” It was better to die trying to stop Obie than to simply be killed by one of his attacks. They were running out of time.

“I won’t let you die like this.” Loki insisted from beside him, even as Pepper called out protest from below.

It was all too much for Tony to process: the near-death, Obie’s betrayal, and now the two important people in his life unwilling to let him go. Tony closed his eyes and shook his head. He didn’t want to deal with it. “Just push it.”

This time, Pepper listened.

He heard the Arc reactor overloading, and he opened his panicked eyes to meet Loki’s—realizing suddenly that it was the first time they had seen each other without the layer of his face-mask. He didn’t even have enough time to feel regret, when a strong energy pulse emitted from right below him, propelling him upwards.

It took him a moment to realize he wasn’t dead. A jet of air had carried him away from the blast site just a moment before it hit, causing him to hit a wall instead of being blown apart. Loki! That reckless son of a bitch.

Tony didn’t even get a moment to enjoy being alive, because Stane’s suit falling into reactor core had started a chain reaction, and building under him was collapsing.

“Get up!!” Loki pulled on his arm, and Tony realized suddenly that Loki was still around, that he hadn’t left. He opened his mouth to form words of gratitude but one look at Loki’s panicked face made him get to his feet. Hastily Loki pulled him into the air, supporting all of his weight, just as the Stark Industries R & D department erupted in fire.

Tony paused outside the door for a moment, strangely hesitant. Then he took a deep breath, and knocked before entering the guest room Loki was staying in.

“I brought you some clothes to wear, if you’re interested, and some food. I hope you would like it, even if you don’t exactly require sustenance like humans do.” Tony placed the tray on the table, and the clothes on the chair beside it. “If you want to read something, there are books in the cupboard, or you can just ask Jarvis to show you how to access virtual library.”

Loki was standing next to the window and stared at the ocean outside, looking lost. At Tony’s entrance he turned around, but didn’t say anything.

“Jarvis knows you already, but I guess you should be formally introduced. Jarvis?”

“Yes, Sir?”

Loki looked up at the ceiling curiously, making Tony smile.

“You know Loki, right?”

“It would be hard not to, after all the time you’ve—,”

“Mute!” Tony knew his face was flaming red, and Loki chuckled.

“I believe I have met your… assistant… before. He’s the one that runs your suit, right?”

“Hey! I run my suit,” Tony protested, before rubbing the back of his neck bashfully. “But yeah. I guess you’re right. You have met him.”

When Loki said nothing, Tony continued to ramble. “So… this is different, isn’t it? No suit now. Just the squishy human inside? It’s weird. Is it weird? I don’t know, I feel like I have deceived you somehow, but I could hardly have taken off my helmet in the freezing temperatures. Still…”

“Anthony…” Loki said softly, moving closer to him.

“Yeah. I am gonna shut up now.” Tony closed his mouth, and stared at Loki, who looked unbearably fragile standing in front of him.

“This is hardly, in terms you would understand, a downgrade. I find your real form … appealing.”

Tony couldn’t have stopped the pleased smile from forming on his lips at that. “Appealing, huh?”

“Quite so.” Loki was standing in his personal space now, and for the first time Tony could actually feel the warmth of emanating from him, the quick flutter of his heart- much faster than a human’s.

Unconsciously, Tony’s gaze lifted up to Loki’s eyes, and then trailed down to his lips, lingering… hoping. He saw Loki’s wings flap once, lifting Loki from ground slightly and swaying him.

“I am sorry about your wing.” Tony shifted his eyes away from Loki’s lips to look at his burnt left wing, darkened and twisted. It was the price he had paid to save Tony from incinerating along with his arc reactor.

“It will heal.” Loki’s hand cupped his face, his thumb stroking Tony’s cheek. “And until it does, I find that this place serves me quite well. It doesn’t feel constricting like I expected earth to, and I am guessing that you’ve something to do with that.”

Tony ducked his head, relieved that he had been pathetic enough to want the place to be comfortable for Loki even if he never came here. “Still, you shouldn’t have risked your life like that.”

“Considering the outcome, I must say I do not regret it.” Loki confessed.

“What outcome?” Tony asked, looking back into Loki’s eyes again.

“This.”

And then Loki moved closer and slotted his lips with Tony’s, taking the inventor by surprise and making him melt into the kiss that felt a lot like free fall.

“Will you be okay here?” Tony asked, later, pressing his forehead against Loki’s as he panted for breath.

“Yes,” Loki answered, caressing Tony’s cheek. “With the ocean in front of me, the earth just a few inches underneath me, and a man that is fire incarnate beside me, I believe it will be…” Loki paused to think, and then smirked, “Awesome.”

~~EPILOGUE~~

“Wow. You really weren’t kidding about the castle in the sky. I feel like I am living in a Percy Jackson novel right now. You sure your father isn’t Zeus?” Anthony was rambling as they climbed the stairway towards the Sylph Castle, the clouds forming the next step every time they raised their feet. They could’ve flown to the pavement, but it was considered respectful to climb the way.

Loki never much cared for propriety, but Anthony wanted to do this right. He glanced sideways at his partner, who was climbing one step at the time, and continuously muttering under his breath. Over the two years that he had known the mortal, he had discovered that he rambled when he was nervous, so he didn’t interrupt or stop him, instead just focused on Anthony’s voice and let it chase away his own anxiety.

He knew he Odin would not be pleased.

They weren’t allowed to reveal themselves to mortals, let alone bring a mortal to their realm. But Frigga had asked the last few times he had visited, and Anthony had been getting restless about wanting to meet his family too. He could bear a few awkward hours and some barely repressed hostility for the sake of his beloved.

When they climbed the final step, and stood before the closed front gates of the castle, Loki gripped Anthony’s arm. He wasn’t wearing his armor for once, Loki’s magic keeping him safe from the wind and the chill, and the warmth of the skin underneath Loki’s fingertips felt reassuring.

“Anthony?”

“Yes, darling.” Tony turned around to smile at him in genuine affection, and Loki was filled with too much love for any of the anxiety to linger.

“Beloved… whatever happens inside, it doesn’t matter.” Loki wanted him to know that, before they entered the castle and were faced with Odin’s prejudice.

“So you’ve said. But Loki, I really want your family to not hate my guts for stealing their favorite prince. Shit… I still can’t believe you are a freaking sylph prince. This might’ve been a bad idea.”

Loki smiled at the panic in Anthony’s eyes, turning him around to cup his face. “I care not for what they think… and neither should you.”

“But…”

Loki put a finger on Anthony’s lips to stop his protest. “No buts. You asked to be brought here, and I obliged. Now, my mother would be delighted to meet you, but whatever else happens, it doesn’t change anything. I am looking forward to be done with the formality of it all and go back home.”

The last word made Anthony’s lips stretch in a smile, just like Loki knew it would. “Home.”

“Yes. That wonderful tower you’ve built for me, above the confines of the earth… my very own castle in the sky.”

“For us,” Anthony corrected, and Loki smiled yet again.

“For us,” he agreed.

Anthony stared at him for another moment, searching for something. Then he nodded in determination. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Loki watched in fascination and awe, as Anthony stepped away from him and towards the gates, pushing them with both hands, and forcing them wide open for himself.

Yes.

He wasn’t surprised.

Anthony had a peculiar way of forging a path for himself wherever he went, letting no closed doors stop him, just like he had done with Loki’s heart. Suddenly, he wasn’t so sure of how the day will go. When he had considered Odin’s bigotry, he had forgotten to account for Anthony’s charm.

And well, Loki thought fondly, if the rest of the sylph couldn’t see the exquisiteness of his chosen mortal, it was their own loss. They could, as Anthony would say, kiss his ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See chapter 2 for the dividers and art in one place <3.


	2. ART for 'Like Startdust On Fairy Wings"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I liked the visual of Loki having slender Sylph wings, so I ended up drawing them! As the deadline for the gift-exchange has extended, maybe this can be sort of bonus gift :D.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year you all. ♥  
> If you liked it, please leave me a comment. It will make my new year a little brighter too!


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